Honestly, I’ve experienced “mental health care professionalism” in a couple of “developed” countries. You’re better off just getting a dog. That’s not a joke.

Dogs are awesome, but therapy can be as well. Not sure what kind of mental health care is being sought after here – or what kind of therapy you’ve undergone, Goatboy – but I personally believe mental health care can’t be supplanted completely by bestial therapy. Perhaps they make a good match though 😀

I think when people dismiss mental health care and therapy, they refer either to a friend’s or their own bad/ineffective experience with it, judging the science and industry as a whole based on their personal experience. My own stance on this matter is that it’s an extremely personal exercise that’s practiced with varying degrees of professionalism and personality-to-personality suitability (between doc and patient). The lack of quality in various developed countries that you’ve seen/experienced could be due to a saturated market, lack of good training, or some other factor, but I don’t think it’s a condemnation of the practice as a whole. That said, the mental health care options in China are certainly more narrow – not sure if that is a good or a bad thing. Anyways, I’m a supporter of the practice.

source: I am a dog owner and personally underwent ~2 years of cognitive behavioral therapy, also known as “talk therapy”. Ironically, one of the things we talked about a lot at therapy was the dog… but more from a, like, symbolic angle, you know?

I’m a therapist living in Chengdu. I founded BeeNow with the mission to optimize mental health in individuals and organizations. Our belief is that self-awareness drives positive change and we want to make psychotherapy more accessible to expats and potentially locals too. Our next event is “Work smart without regret.” we hope to see you there. My wechat is basicsense.